Jan 6. Panel Will Reportedly Seek Texts, Emails That Alex Jones' Lawyer Accidentally Sent to Opposing Counsel
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SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images Alex Jones
Text messages and emails from Alex Jones were mistakenly sent to the attorney of those suing him. Now, Rolling Stone reports that the bipartisan House committee investigating the insurrection at the Capitol is preparing to subpoena Jones' leaked records.
The Infowars host, 48, is being sued for defamation for $150 million by two parents who lost their son in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, after he was found legally responsible in October 2021 for making false statements about the victims.
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Attorney Mark Bankston represents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, who was one of the 20 first graders and six teachers killed at in the tragic school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. It remains today one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
In a stunning courtroom moment on Wednesday, Bankston told Jones that his own attorney had mistakenly sent Bankston three years' worth of emails and text messages.
"Mr. Jones, did you know that 12 days ago, your attorneys messed up and sent me an entire digital copy of your entire cellphone with every text message you've sent for the past two years?" Bankston asked while Jones was on the stand Wednesday. "And when informed, did not take any steps to identify it as privileged or protected in any way. As of two days ago, it fell free and clear into my possession, and that is how I know you lied to me when you said that you didn't have text messages about Sandy Hook."
Within minutes of that revelation being made public, Rolling Stone reports — citing "a source familiar with the matter and another person briefed on it" — members of the committee began "preparing to request that data from the plaintiff attorneys in order to aid its investigation of the insurrection."
While it remains unclear exactly what the Jan. 6 committee hopes to find, they have long been interested in Jones' believed involvement in helping plan the rally that sparked an insurrection. The committee's bipartisan hearings, which began on June 9, have each featured new revelations about the events leading up to the attacks and how Trump and his allies responded.
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Among the many allegations that have so far come to light in the hearings are that Trump physically assaulted a Secret Service agent in an attempt to get to the Capitol on Jan. 6; and that several Republican members of Congress sought a blanket pardon for their involvement in the former president's attempts to overturn his defeat.
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Members of the committee have said additional hearings will begin in September, and it's unclear when, exactly, the hearings will end.
